A. Nesamony, sometimes known as Marshal Nesamony, was a political leader from Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu, India. He was the second son of Kesavan Appavu Nadar,[1] born on 12 June 1895 at Nesarpuram, Palliyadi[2] in Vilavancode Taluk, Kanyakumari district. He graduated from Maharaja's College in Thiruvananthapuram, and studied at law college in Thiruvananthapuram.[2] He began practising in 1921. He was among those involved with the merger of four Taluks from Southern Travancore to Tamil Nadu.
Early life
He was educated at Scott Christian High School and then at C.M.S. College in Tirunelveli. While studying at C.M.S. College,[2] he was elected as students' leader, which provided him with an opportunity to attend the Congress Conference[vague] at Calcutta. Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi at that time, he chose to wear only Khadi cotton dresses throughout his life. He graduated with a BA degree from Maharaja's College, Trivandrum, after which he began teaching, spending a year at Kurnool Bishop Heeber High school. He later became headmaster at Salvation Army Middle School in Trivandrum. Simultaneously he pursued his law studies at Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram. He married M. Caroline on 1 September 1914.[3] He had one son and six daughters.[3]
Legal practice
Nesamony registered as a lawyer at Nagercoil Sessions Court in 1921.[4] He became a criminal lawyer[4] at Nagercoil Bar. He was elected as the president of Nagercoil Lawyers' Association in 1943.[4] In the same year he was also elected as the chairman of Nagercoil Municipal Council.[2] Shri Nesamony is a distinguished lawyer.[5] As he was a reputed lawyer, many young advocates irrespective of caste or religion wished to become his juniors. They gained much from him and later contributed to society as lawyers and politicians. A few among them were Chidambaranathan Nadar, Ponnappan Nadar, Gopalakrishnan, Fakrudeen Adam, and Razak. The TTNC president Sam Nathaniel was also his junior.[citation needed]
Public life
1941-1942 Advocate; Member, Travancore Bar Council [3]
A consequence of the social oppression and political repression was an ongoing campaign for recognition by the affected groups during the later nineteenth- and early twentieth-centuries. This was evidenced by, for example. the creation of the Nair Service Society[13][14] and the SNDP.[15]
The agitation intensified after Indian independence. A campaign was launched under the auspices of a political movement called the Travancore Tamil Nadu Congress (TTNC), to fight against the social ills that existed in the former state of Travancore. The TTNC later converted into a political party in order to contest elections. Suffered imprisonment at the hands of the P.S.P Government of the TC State during the agitation for the Merger of Travancore Tamil Area with the Madras State [6] It culminated in the formation of Kanyakumari district and its subsequent merger with Tamil Nadu on 1 November 1956 during the linguistic reorganisation of states.[16][17][18]
Immediately thereafter, the TTNC merged with the Indian National Congress[19] and became fully integrated with the national mainstream.
Shri Nesamany worked for the return of Kanyakumari to Tamil Nadu. He was known as a great champion, of the Tamil language and Tamilians.
He was a good public worker.
Nesamony died on 1 June 1968[21] while serving as a member in the Lok Sabha. This caused a by-election in his Nagercoil constituency in 1969, which was won by Kamaraj.[22]
Shri Nesamony, who had been a Member of this House, has been a relentless fighter and a doughty champion of the rights of minorities
and the establishment of those riihu. He has been considered as a deliverer by the people of Kanyakumari District The affectionate and loyal people of Kanyakumari District called him as 'Raja Nesamony': He has been held in high esteem for his sincerity, Impeccable honesty and integrity. He was a man who fought heroically and saw the realisation of the rosy dream of the people of Kanyakumari District namely, the merger of Kanyakumari District with Tamil Nadu. In order to achieve his goal, he had to fight with his political bosses and though ultimately they might claim that they had succeeded, the fact remains that he had conquered every thing he wanted. Till his death, his spirit was undying and he was clear in his concept. Whenever Marshall Nesamony fought against forces, terrible and with alarming dimensions, he used to
say, let the trail sparrow hurt itself against the eagle.[23]
There have been various tributes paid to his memory since that time. These include:
the erection of a statue near Anna bus-stand in the heart of Nagercoil, together with a memorial building
the creation of a satellite township called Nesamony Nagar on the outskirts of Nagercoil, where the headquarters of the former Nesamony Transport Corporation (a Tamil Nadu government undertaking) existed
the naming of the bridge built across the Kuzhithurai river as Nesamony Paalam
his birthplace in Palliyadi was named Nesarpuram.[24]
a park near Thingalnagar-Monday Market Bus-stand in Kanyakumari district was named Nesamony Poonga
The central government published commemorative postal envelopes in recognition of the centenary of his birth in 1995.[25]
Tamil Nadu government opened a memorial on 27 February 2014 at Nagercoil[26]
^Gough, E. Kathleen (1961). "Nayars: Central Kerala". In Schneider, David Murray; Gough, E. Kathleen (eds.). Matrilineal Kinship. University of California Press. p. 304. ISBN978-0-520-02529-5.
